Electricity is expected to soon be restored in the Afghan capital, weeks after insurgents destroyed cables from Uzbekistan providing power to Kabul.

Wahidullah Tawhidi, spokesman for the Afghan electricity directorate, said on February 20 that the military had cleared Taliban-linked fighters from the area of northern Baghlan Province where the cables were cut.

Engineers had begun to reconnect some of the cables and the work should be finished within five days.

Kabul's 5 million or so inhabitants are used to rationing and frequent power cuts that often last several hours, especially during winter.

However, the latest blackouts, which began in late January, mark some of the worst the capital has seen since the demise of the Taliban regime in 2001.